Pocket respirator



16, 1956 G. G. KLINGER ET AL 3,266,490

7 POCKET RESPIRATOR Filed April 13. 1964 INVENTORS GUY 0. KLINGER and CHARLES J. BOYER el'r ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,266,490 POCKET RESPIRATOR Guy G. Klinger, Shillington, and Charles I. Boyer, West Reading, Pa., assignors to The Electric Storage Battery Company, Philadelphia, Pa.

Filed Apr. 13, 1964, Ser. No. 359,353 1 Claim. (Cl. 128--147) This invention relates to a pocket respirator and, more particularly, to the mouth piece and attached assembly for such respirator.

An outstanding disadvantage of conventional pocket respirators has been their large and cumbersome construction and relatively low efliciency in filtering out a variety of air contaminants, such as dust, fumes and gas when the respirator is worn in the mouth.

An object of the present invention is to provide a novel pocket respirator which is devoid of the above named disadvantages and which is relatively compact, simple in construction and inexpensive to manufacture and assemble.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a novel escape unit embodying a canister which may be selectively substituted for the conventional filter unit of the pocket respirator.

Other objects and advantages will become more apparent from a study of the following description taken with the accompanying drawing wherein:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a pocket respirator embodying the principles of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged, exploded view showing the various parts of the pocket respirator shown in FIG. 1; and,

FIG. 3 is a side view of the mouth piece portion of the pocket respirator and an escape unit embodying a canister which is selectively substituted for the filter unit shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 to provide an escape unit.

Referring more particularly to FIG. 1 of the drawing, numeral 1 generally denotes a filter assembly for filtering the surrounding air of dust, fumes and mists, comprising a screw threaded cover 2 having perforations 3 through which air is admitted and passes through a filter pad 4. The cover is screw threaded onto a threaded base 5 which supports a filter cartridge 6 of any well known construction, such as a chemical cartridge or one including activated charcoal or any other suitable filtering material for air. Attached to diametrically opposed portions of the base 5 are clips 8 to which are attached the ends of strap 9 which extends about the rear portion of the neck of the wearer to support the respirator when the mouth piece is not held in the mouth. Mounted on the center of the rear flange 15 of base 5 by a diagonally extending strip is a head portion 11 and collar portion 12 for receiving the hole 13a of an inhalation valve diaphragm 14 of rubber or other flexible material of disc shape. Diaphragm 14, when mounted on collar 12, is adapted to become seated on flange or seat 15 or to become unseated therefrom when air is inhaled.

The pocket respirator unit, generally denoted by numeral 17, comprises a body portion 20, preferably made of neoprene, rubber or plastic material, and provided with an air inlet opening 18 and air outlet opening 23, both of which are circular and in confronting relationship. The valve seat 15 is adapted to be projected through air inlet opening 18, while the latter is stretched, until collar portion 19 snugly seats within the opening 18. Thus, filtered air is drawn into the body portion 20, the mouth piece 21, outlet 21a and into the mouth'of the wearer.

An exhalation valve, generally denoted by numeral 24, is projected into outlet opening 23 of flange 22, as the latter is stretched, until ri-m portion 26 seats against the inner surface 27, while the collar portion 25 is snugly emice braced by opening 23 in an air-tight manner. The exhalation valve is of hard plastic or rubber material having central openings and a seat 29 on which rubber diaphragm 31 of exhalation valve 30 is seated after the central stud portion thereof is projected into a tight fitting hole in the exhalation valve 24.

Thus, as air is exhaled through the mouth piece and body portion 20, it will unseat diaphragm 31 from seat 29. In order to protect diaphragm 31, a cover of squirrel cage construction, generally denoted by numeral 32, is fitted onto the collar portion 33 and is provided with a plurality of peripherally extending holes 34 through which air may be exhaled.

In order to prevent air from being breathed through the nose of the wearer, there is attached to body 20, by means of a string 35, a circular spring 37 having terminal loops 38 and 39 which are sandwiched between spool-like rubber elements 40, 41 and to which are integrally secured noseengaging elements 42 and 43 of soft rubber having a readily yieldable rubber connection integrally secured to elements 40, 41 (42, 43 may be of rubber-like material).

FIG. 3 shows the mouth piece assembly and an escape unit 45 which may be substituted for the filter assembly shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. This escape unit comprises a collar portion 47 and flange 46 which takes the place of collar 19 and flange 15 of FIG. 2 in that it is adapted to be projected through air inlet opening 18 and thus mounted on the body portion 20 at which time collar portion 47 is snugly seated in opening 18. By means of a housing 48, which is connected to a gas-mask type canister 49, a fragmentary portion of which is shown, air which has been filtered by the canister passes through housing 48 into the body 20 so that purified air will reach the mouth piece 21 as it is held between the lips and teeth while bits 21a thereof are held between the teeth.

Thus it will be seen that we have provided an eflicient pocket respirator which comprises a compact assembly of parts which are easy to assemble and to take apart for cleaning and which are relatively inexpensive in cost, yet which will provide assured filtering of outside air even though the filter is worn in the mouth; furthermore, we have provided a pocket respirator to which an escape unit may be selectively mounted in place of the air filtering unit for use in a gaseous atmosphere.

While we have illustrated and described several specific embodiments of our invention, it will be understood that these are by way of illustration only, and that various changes and modifications may be made within the contemplation of our invention and within the scope of the following claim.

We claim:

A pocket respirator comprising a mouthpiece including a substantially cylindrical body portion of a resilient rubber-like material having an air inlet opening at one end coaxially confronting an air outlet opening at the other end, said openings being of substantially smaller diameter than that of said cylindrical body portion, an air exhalation valve having an integral air-outlet, shoulder-forming annular flanges of larger diameter than said outlet opening separated by an integral collar portion of smaller diameter which has a length equal to the thickness of the body portion at said outlet opening and which detachably fits into said outlet opening to hold the flanges against the inner surface of the body portion to form an air-tight seal therewith, said mouthpiece having an integral mouthpiece portion projecting at an obtuse angle from the top of said body portion above and beyond said exhalation valve, and an 'air filtering unit having integral, air-inlet, shoulderforming annular flanges of larger diameter than that of said air-inlet opening separated by an integral collar portion of smaller diameter which has a length equal to the 3 4 thickness of the body portion at said inlet opening and References Cited by the Examiner which collar portion is inserted in said air-inlet opening UNITED STATES PATENTS to hold the flanges against the inner surface of the body portion for detachably forming an air-tight seal therewith, 2,610,624 9/1952 Hanef et 128*147 said air filtering unit comprising a cylindrical canister. 5 2,852,023 9/1958 et a] 128 203 having end walls, a housing mounted on one end Wall and 3142549 7/1964 Klusewltz et 128-146 X extending axially from said canister, said air-inlet opening being formed in one of the axially extending walls of RICHARD GAUDET Prlmary Exammer' the housing. i W. E, KAMM, Assistant Examiner. 

